The party has a strongly nationalist and conservative platform. Hanson and other party members have denied claims that the party is racist. Hanson says that "criticism is not racism" about her statements on immigration and race. Hanson has also said that she enjoys the company of other ethnicities and welcomes people to Australia wherever their origin, but does not want other cultures to overly influence Australia.

One Nation changed its name back to "Pauline Hanson's One Nation" in June 2015. Hanson has announced that the party will field candidates in the 2016 Federal Election, with Hanson contesting a Queensland Senate Seat.

Contents

Overview1

Electoral performance2

Internal disputes and decline3

Impact4

2013 controversy5

Hanson's return as leader6

Leaders7

Election results8

Members of Parliament9

Federal9.1

New South Wales9.2

Queensland9.3

Western Australia9.4

See also10

References11

Further reading12

External links13

Overview

One Nation was formed in 1997 by Pauline Hanson, David Oldfield and David Ettridge. Hanson, was an endorsed Liberal Party candidate for the seat of Oxley, Queensland at the 1996 federal election, but was disendorsed by the party shortly before the elections due to comments she made to a local newspaper in Ipswich, Queensland opposing "race-based welfare". Oldfield, a councillor on Manly Council in suburban Sydney and at one time an employee of Liberal minister Tony Abbott, was the organisational architect of the party.

The name "One Nation" was chosen to signify belief in national unity, in contrast to a perceived increasing division in Australian society allegedly caused by government policies favouring immigrants and indigenous Australians. The term One Nation was last used in Australian political life to describe a tax reform package by the Labor government of Paul Keating, whose urban-based, Asia-centric, free-market, and pro-affirmative action policies were representative of what One Nation voters were opposing.

Arguing that the other parties to be out of touch with mainstream Australia, One Nation ran on a broadly populist and protectionist platform. It promised to drastically reduce immigration and to abolish "divisive and discriminatory policies ... attached to Aboriginal and multicultural affairs." Condemning multiculturalism as a "threat to the very basis of the Australian culture, identity and shared values", One Nation rallied against government immigration and multicultural policies which, it argued, were leading to "the Asianisation of Australia."[2] The party also denounced economic rationalism and globalisation, reflecting working-class dissatisfaction with the neo-liberal economic policies embraced by the major parties. Adopting strong protectionist policies, One Nation advocated the restoration of import tariffs, a revival of Australia's manufacturing industry, and an increase in support for small business and the rural sector.[3]

One Nation became subject to a political campaign by Tony Abbott, who established a trust fund called "Australians for Honest Politics Trust" to help bankroll civil court cases against the Party (see Tony Abbott#Action against the One Nation party). He was also accused of offering funds to One Nation dissident Terry Sharples to support his court battle against the party. Abbott conceded that the political threat One Nation posed to the Howard Government was "a very big factor" in his decision to pursue the legal attack, but he also claimed to be acting "in Australia's national interest".

The party's greatest appeal was in country areas of New South Wales and Queensland, the traditional heartlands of the junior partner in the non-Labor Coalition, the National Party. Indeed, for much of 1997 and 1998, it appeared that One Nation would pass the Nationals.

Electoral performance

One Nation achieved its peak of support in the 1998 Queensland state election, at which the party won 22.7% of the vote, behind only Labor. In terms of first-preference votes, One Nation received more than either the Liberals or Nationals; indeed, its vote share was high enough to render any attempt to calculate a two-party preferred vote meaningless. However, since One Nation's vote was spread out across the state, this was only good enough for seven seats and fourth place in the legislature (behind Labor, the Liberals and Nationals), with 11 of the 89 seats. This was still enough to deny Labor a majority, as seven of One Nation's seats would have gone to Labor if not for leakage of Coalition preferences. Subsequently, the One Nation contingent in the Queensland Parliament split, with dissident members forming the rival City-Country Alliance in late 1999.[6]

At the 1998 federal election, Hanson contested the new seat of Blair after a redistribution effectively split Oxley in half. Hanson lost to Liberal candidate Cameron Thompson, and the One Nation candidate in Oxley lost the seat to ALP candidate Bernie Ripoll, but One Nation candidate Heather Hill was elected as a senator for Queensland. Hill's eligibility to sit as a senator was successfully challenged under the Australian Constitution on the basis that she had failed to renounce her childhood British citizenship, despite being a naturalised Australian citizen. The seat went to the party's Len Harris following a recount. At the 1999 New South Wales election, David Oldfield was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council.

In the 2001 Queensland state election, One Nation won three seats and 8.69% of the primary vote. The City-Country Alliance lost all of its seats, and faded into irrelevance soon afterward.

At the 2001 federal election, the party's vote fell from 9% to 5.5%. Hanson failed in her bid to win a Senate seat from Queensland, despite polling a strong 10% of the primary vote. Voters of most other parties were unwilling to favourably preference One Nation, under Australia's single transferable vote voting system. Hanson failed to win a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Council at the 2003 state election, where she ran as an independent, with the support of the One Nation party. She polled less than 2% of the vote and withdrew from the party's leadership.

Internal disputes and decline

Since the 1997 peak, One Nation has been plagued by internal divisions and has split several times. Lawsuits involving ex-members forced Hanson to repay approximately A$500,000 of public funding won at the 1998 Queensland election amid claims that the party was fraudulently registered. The suits alleged that the party was undemocratically constituted in order to concentrate all power in the hands of three people—Hanson, Ettridge and Oldfield (in particular Oldfield)—and that it technically had only two members: Ettridge and Hanson. Even though Hanson's fraud charges were dropped, the Electoral Commission of Queensland never reimbursed Hanson for the monies that they collected from the claim.

In October 2000, Hanson expelled Oldfield from the party. Oldfield had been accused of abusing his authority, usurping power, and setting up alternative political parties under his control. His expulsion created even more instability in a party which was constantly embroiled in scandal and internal strife. Oldfield engineered a split within the party, creating One Nation NSW, in 2001. The new party took advantage of electoral party registration laws to register itself as a political party under the 'One Nation' name with the NSW electoral commission, and achieved registration in April 2002. This meant that the original One Nation party was unable to gain registration for NSW elections, and that any candidates which that party chose to represent them at state elections could not use the party name. Consequently, the original One Nation could only contest Federal elections in NSW under the 'One Nation' banner, whilst the Oldfield group could present itself as 'One Nation' only at state elections.

At the 2004 Queensland election, One Nation polled less than 5% of the vote and its sole elected representative, Rosa Lee Long, acted as an independent. One Nation attempted to defend its Queensland Senate seat at the 2004 federal election, but lost it (effectively to the National Party). Len Harris's Senate term expired on 30 June 2005.

On 8 February 2005, One Nation lost federal party status but re-registered in time for the 2007 federal election. It still had state parties in Queensland and New South Wales. Subsequently, it created another state party in Western Australia. In the February 2005 Western Australian election, the One Nation vote collapsed.

In the 2006 South Australian state election, six One Nation candidates stood for the lower house. Their highest levels of the primary vote was 4.1% in the district of Hammond and 2.7% in Goyder, with the other four hovering around 1%. They attracted 0.8% (7559 votes) of the upper house vote. One Nation consequently won no seats in that election.

In the 2006 Queensland state election, the party contested four of 89 seats, and its vote collapsed. It suffered a swing of 4.3% to be left with just 0.6% of the vote. Its only remaining seat in the state (and country), Tablelands, was retained with an increased majority by Rosa Lee Long.[7] Tablelands was abolished prior to the 2009 Queensland state election, with Lee Long failing to win the seat of Dalrymple. She now is the Mayor of Mareeba, in Queensland's north.

In the 2012 Queensland state election the party unsuccessfully contested six seats. The party received only 2,525 first preference votes (representing 0.1% of the total cast) across the state.[8]

Impact

During its brief period of popularity, One Nation had a major impact on Australian politics. The primary effect at state and federal levels was to split the conservative vote and threaten the National Party's support base.[6] The appeal of its policies to the National Party's constituency put great pressure on that party. The rapid rise of the party revealed a substantial minority of discontented voters dissatisfied with the major parties.

In the prologue to her autobiography Untamed and Unashamed, Hanson cites the Howard government's adoption of her policies as an attempt to win back One Nation voters to the Liberal and National parties, stating "the very same policies I advocated back then ... are being advocated today by the federal government".[9]

2013 controversy

In August 2013, Stephanie Bannister - a One Nation candidate in the federal election for the lower house seat of Rankin - gave an interview to Channel 7[10] in which she referred to the religion Islam as a country, claimed that Jewish people worship Jesus Christ, confused the Muslim text Quran with the Islamic term for sin, Haram, and made numerous incorrect statements about Halal and Kashrut, food laws regarding Muslims and Jews, respectively.[11]

Banister stated "Unfortunately, they've completely twisted all my words and made me out to be a stand-up criminal and a stupid moron" and that she had been misrepresented, with numerous corrections having been edited out by Fairfax Media.[12] Banister withdrew from the election shortly afterward.[16]

In July 2015, Hanson announced that the party was renamed back to 'Pauline Hanson's One Nation', and that she would contest senate in the 2016 federal election.[19] In September 2015, the first One Nation candidate for the next federal election was announced, and that they would contest the seat of Hinkler.[20]

Davis, Rex and Stimson, Robert (1998), 'Disillusionment and disenchantment at the fringe: explaining the geography of the One Nation Party vote at the Queensland election,' People and Place, Vol.6, No.3, Pages 69–82.

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